I 524 
T54 
^opy 1 




HE CHURCH AFTER 
THE WAR 

By WILLIAM OXLEY THOMPSON 



THE CHURCH AFTER 
THE WAR 

An Address before the Ohio 
Conference of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, Broad Street 
Church, Columbus, Ohio, Sep- 
tember 26, 1917 : : : : : 



By WILLIAM OXLEY THOMPSON 

President, Ohio State University 

With Introduction 

By BISHOP WILLIAM F. ANDERSON 




THE ABINGDON PRESS 

NEW YORK CINCINNATI 



^ 



<^ 



A 



Copyright, 1917, by 
WILLIAM OXLEY THOMPSON 



©C!.A47?665 
NOV 14 1917 



INTRODUCTION 



IT was that distinguished Enghshman 
Lord Brougham who said, "A great 
mind on a great occasion engaged in 
the discussion of a great theme is the most 
impressive and majestic spectacle in human 
Hfe." Those who were fortunate to be pre- 
sent at the opening session of the Ohio An- 
nual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, Wednesday morning, September 
26, 1917, felt the force of this statement. 
All these three conditions met in a remark- 
able degree. It was a great occasion. The 
old Ohio is the oldest of the Annual Con- 
ferences in the State, this being the 106th 
session. The announcement of the program 
attracted many people, so that the audience 
was quite representative of the leading men 
of Ohio's capital city. It was such an audi- 
ence as would be a challenge to any public 
speaker. The subject which had been 
chosen was one of vital interest — "The 
Church After the War." The masterful 

3 



INTRODUCTION 



mind of Dr. William Oxley Thompson, 
president of Ohio State University, came 
upon this great occasion for the discussion of 
this great theme. The announcement cre- 
ated an expectation which was more than 
met in the address which follows. The ad- 
dress is characteristic of its author in at least 
three outstanding particulars. 

From the beginning to the end President 
Thompson dared to call things by their 
rightful names. Those who know his spirit 
and the manner of his address know that he 
is no mere word mincer. He has clear-cut 
convictions and dares to express them. 
When the occasion requires it he can call a 
spade a spade as briefly and as bluntly as 
any man in the old Buckeye State. His 
arraignment of the Prussian autocratic gov- 
ernment is merciless, and crystallizes not 
only his own thought upon this subject but 
likewise that of his fellow countrymen. The 
question as to the responsibility and the un- 
forgiveableness of this world disaster is a 
closed book to the people of this country, as 
it will be to the judgment of history and to 
all future generations. 



INTRODUCTION 



The theme was a congenial one to the 
taste of President Thompson. His mind 
takes kindly to the swing of world move- 
ments. He sees in the large, thinks in con- 
tinents, and talks with the reach and range 
of world-grasp and world-mastery. His 
mind meets its affinity in the cosmic rather 
than in the provincial, in the spiritual rather 
than in the material, in the eternal rather 
than in the temporal. He moved with the 
stride of a giant to the heart of his subject 
and then to its powerful elucidation. The 
effect upon his hearers was electric, tre- 
mendous. 

The third characteristic of his address 
which I wish to note is apparent as we read 
his strong words. It is the place which 
President Thompson accords to Jesus 
Christ and his redemptive program in the 
world's reconstruction after the war. Chris- 
tianity is the constructive principle in the 
progress of human development. In the 
world which this address portrays as pos- 
sible for future generations of mankind the 
divine element must dominate. President 
Thompson's voice always rings true not only 

5 



INTRODUCTION 



for all reform but for righteousness and re- 
ligion. 

I heartily commend this little volume as a 
sane and constructive statement of world 
religious conditions. Its wide circulation 
will clarify our thought upon present-day 
conditions. It points to Jesus Christ as the 
only Saviour of mankind and deepens the 
conviction that there is none other name 
under heaven given among men whereby the 
world must be saved. 

William F. Anderson. 



THE CHURCH AFTER THE WAR 

War completely overturns all the normal 
plans and pursuits of the world. Every ac- 

^t_ xtT .J tivity, commercial, manufactur- 
The World . ^ , . . , 

War ^^^' ^^* productive as agricul- 

ture, is reorganized in the inter- 
est of the successful prosecution of the ends 
of war. The present world contest sur- 
passes the imagination of the wildest mili- 
tary mind. The fact that a thousand mil- 
lions of the population of the earth are 
arrayed in this stupendous contest is quite 
beyond the range of our mathematics. The 
words sound empty and meaningless. When 
the war began Serbia with sixteen thousand 
square miles of territory — less than half of 
the area of Ohio — had a population of about 
two and one half millions. Estimates al- 
ready published indicate the slaughter of 
about seven millions of men — more than the 
entire population — men, women and chil- 
dren — of either Serbia, Belgium, or Ohio. 
The wounded, estimated at fifteen millions 
of men, average in the hospitals approxi- 



THE CHURCH AFTER THE WAR 

mately five millions of men, a number about 
equal to the entire population — ^men, women 
and children — in the State of Ohio. Of this 
vast number many return to the trenches 
after hospital care. There is a great army 
constantly passing through the hospitals, 
many of whom are unfitted for further serv- 
ice. No matter what the point of view may 
be, the magnitude of this contest is quite be- 
yond the comprehension of any save those 
who are able to think in continents and mil- 
lions. Unfortunately, most of us think in 
hundreds and in the terms of our local com- 
munities. 

At the outset the war, with no adequate 
explanation or justification, with an unpar- 
alleled disregard for treaty obligations, for 
the recognized and established rules of war 
and the rights of noncombatants — especially 
as represented in innocent women and chil- 
dren — by its very frightfulness and ferocity 
caused many to cry out that Christianity had 
failed and the church collapsed. Men in 
their despair began to think there was no 
power in religion or among men that could 
restrain the fury of war-maddened govern- 



THE CHURCH AFTER THE WAR 

merits. Very few in the United States knew 
what many of us now know as to the long 
process of education and preparation made 
for "The Day" confidently expected and 
anticipated by the ruling class in Germany. 
What now seems so plain in the light of 
three years' experience and reading, and 
especially in the light of recent disclosures 
as to the conduct of the embassies, was an 
unbelievable story. A few men well in- 
formed on the current war literature prior to 
1914 were persuaded to believe that expend- 
itures were made as a preparation against 
war. We heard that expression in the 
United States as an argument for defense. 
We now know that Germany was preparing 
not against war but for war. 

The common mind of the plain people in 
the United States is open and frank in its 
democratic simplicity and hon- 
^ , est in its processes. Such a 

Mind mind is utterly incapable of fol- 

lowing the devious paths and in- 
trigues of European diplomacy. An honest 
mind is always amazed at the intrigue of the 
burglar. We have, therefore, tried to meas- 



THE CHURCH AFTER THE WAR 

ure European movements by the ordinary 
ethical standards current among us and have 
been disheartened by the results. I think 
that herein lies the key to the avalanche of 
doubt and dismay that flooded the world at 
the opening of the war. Speaking of our- 
selves only, I should say that the American 
mind was unable to grasp or conceive the 
mental processes by which Germany ex- 
plained and justified her conduct of the war. 
The appeal made by the German intellect- 
uals and scattered in all the universities of 
the country in justification of the war by 
Germany was incomprehensible to Amer- 
ican college faculties. It stands out to-day 
as one of the most pitiable features of the 
war that well-known German scholars 
should have been so completely Kaiser ized 
as to lose all their independence and freedom 
in thinking. That document was the 
Waterloo of German philosophy and educa- 
tion in its power and influence with the 
world. A hundred years will not recover 
what was lost that day by the scholars of 
Germany. 

In other less pronouncedly intellectual 

10 



THE CHURCH AFTER THE WAR 

circles there was the same wonder and 
amazement. In Christian circles 
Puloit ^^^ began to see that the Ger- 

man pulpit had been rational- 
ized for more than a generation. The pul- 
pit had ceased to carry the fervor of evan- 
gelism or the conscience-arousing message 
of the Reformation days. The ethics of 
German people was no longer undergirded 
with the sanction of an evangelical and evan- 
gelistic gospel. It is easy now to see that the 
pulpit had lost its power as a spiritual force, 
and the everyday moral thinking of the peo- 
ple was determined from the political plat- 
form rather than from the pulpit. The state 
rather than the church had come to be the 
proclaimer of the ethics of the empire. May 
God graciously protect us against a day 
when such a state of mind or such a method 
could be possible in the United States ! 

Conquest had prevailed in the first days 

of Prussian ascendancy. Steadily that 

theory had been advanced until 

of the State ^^^ *^^ German states were 
brought under the domination 

of the Prussian ideal and the German Em- 

11 



THE CHURCH AFTER THE WAR 

pire of 1871 stood forth as the result of the 
steady appHcation of the ideas of force and 
conquest. 

The economic progress, the industrial effi- 
ciency, and the highly organized system of 
education gave Germany a place in the 
world and attracted to her the admiration of 
students and scholars the world around. As 
we now see, all this wonderful material de- 
velopment occurred while the people were 
saturated with the idea of superiority and 
national excellence. The children in the 
schools were taught that there was to be a 
great war, and when it came Germany must 
win. Think, if you will, of the consequences 
of forty years of instruction in our public 
schools where every child grew up under 
such teaching. We may well imagine the 
supremacy of militarism even in a peace-lov- 
ing democracy. Germany had thoroughly 
persuaded herself that her superiority gave 
her the right to rule. In one form and an- 
other the doctrine of might came to the com- 
mon consciousness. The supremacy of the 
state, so well illustrated in the everyday life 
of the people, led them to sacrifice all else to 

12 



THE CHURCH AFTER THE WAR 



efficiency. This was but another name for 
the supremacy of power and might. No- 
where in the world has there been a better 
illustration of the full fruit of an underlying 
theory and philosophy. 

The supremacy of the state was inter- 
preted to mean that it was the origin as well 
as the guardian of whatever hberty and free- 
dom the people enjoyed. Even in this 
country there were writers on political 
science — educated in Germany — who be- 
came so enamored with this theory of the 
state and its practical working that they an- 
nounced it here and sought to set up a theory 
of the state in sharp contrast with the 
American theory that governments derive 
their just powers from the consent of the 
governed. We were told that the state was 
the source of all Hberty. The theory of the 
inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the 
pursuit of happiness was consigned to the 
junk heap, and Americans were told to 
begin the worship of the state. 

This theory of the state was, of course, 
most welcome to the beneficiaries of heredi- 
tary dynasties, but ill suited to any people 



13 



THE CHURCH AFTER THE WAR 

who believed that the object of all govern- 
ments should be the common general wel- 
fare. This theory of the state has for a cen- 
tury dominated all German thought until 
might has been enthroned as the measure of 
right. There is no doubt as to the sincerity 
of many who hold to this belief, but we are 
compelled to say in all candor that Germany 
must wake up to the fact that a nation, like 
an individual, is what it thinks, not what it 
thinks it is. 

Need I now suggest to you that this con- 
ception is not only anti- Christian but thor- 

^, . ,. . ouffhly pagan? We stand 
Christianity f i^ , x • xi. 

vs. Paganism ^S^ast when men, not m the ex- 
citement of debate, but in the 
deliberate utterances of their writings, tell 
us that the Christian doctrine that we that 
are strong should bear the infirmities of the 
weak is a beautiful sentiment as between in- 
dividuals, but an absurdity when applied to 
groups of people or to the state. We are 
bound to measure the consequences when 
men tell us that the doctrine of the survival 
of the fittest is authority for the strong to 
push the weak to the wall, and authority for 

14 



THE CHURCH AFTER THE WAR 

the doctrine that the superior people may- 
absorb or subject the weaker or inferior 
people. This makes mere physical force the 
measure of moral conduct. It is the most 
monstrous paganism that history knows, 
and no infamy is so dark or wicked as not to 
find protection under its ascendancy. 

Shall I now suggest that as the war pro- 
ceeds the world is coming to see more and 
more clearly this great catastrophe to be the 
contest of the centuries for the supremacy 
between the forces of Christianity and of 
paganism? The struggle now is whether a 
materialistic and pagan system of ethics 
shall be the foundation upon which the gov- 
ernments of the world shall rest, or whether 
the spiritual and Christian system of ethics 
shall abide as the hope of the world and the 
guaranty of the liberties and freedom of hu- 
manity. 

The church as the spiritual teacher of the 
world must recognize and deal with this 
fundamental and most vital issue, whether 
the post-bellum world shall be ruled by mate- 
rialism or paganism on the one hand, or by 
the Christian philosophy and ethics on the 

15 



THE CHURCH AFTER THE WAR 

other. This issue goes to the very heart of 
all the spiritual problems we shall need to 
face. Have we a generation of preachers 
now prepared to set forth the issue in com- 
manding form so as to bring the world to 
recognize the supremacy and superiority of 
the spiritual over the material? 

In a very important sense this raises the 
question whether Christianity has failed and 
. . whether it must continue to fail, 
a Failure? ^^ Christianity, after all, the 
final and complete religion? If 
it is, then the church must arise in her 
strength and proclaim this glorious gospel 
as the necessary undergirding of all our sys- 
tems of morals and practice. We have 
heard all too much of a system of ethics 
based on or growing out of expediency and 
convenience. We need now to hear of a 
heaven-born ethics undergirded with the 
gospel of love and carrying with it the su- 
preme obligations and responsibilities of the 
Christian religion. 

You will recall that the peace resolution 
of the Reichstag last June proclaimed that 
peace for Germany could not rest on inter- 

16 



THE CHURCH AFTER THE WAR 

national treaties, but upon German might 
and strength. Here is the obvious depend- 
ence — not upon character, nor upon the 
sacredness of a contract, nor upon righteous- 
ness, nor upon honor, nor upon the moral 
force of public obligation, but upon might 
and strength. 

In the face of such theory, not confined 

to Germany — for there are those in the 

United States who openly pro- 

^ ^^ claim physical force as the sanc- 

eousness *^^^ ^^ ^^^ treaties — in the face 
of such theory the church must 
seek to set the mind of the world right upon 
the elementary but fundamental principles 
of ethics. I presume I do not misrepresent 
the situation when I say the Christian 
Church believes in the sufficiency and effi- 
ciency of Christianity as the universal and 
final religion suited to and adequate for all 
the needs of all the world. If that be our 
platform, then most assuredly, brethren, we 
must seek the supremacy of the faith of the 
Fathers. Moreover, the church must see to 
it that the world understands the vitality of 
Christianity^ in that it demands a perfect 

17 



THE CHURCH AFTER THE WAR 

correspondence between faith and practice. 
We cannot be Christian in name and fact 
and be materiahstic or pagan in practice. A 
vital religion demands a life as its best ex- 
pression. The church after the war will 
have the opportunity to interpret the life of 
the world in these dreadful years as a life- 
and-death struggle in which sin has never 
been more scarlet, iniquity more hateful, or 
wrong-headedness a greater calamity. The 
church will call the world, let us hope, to 
righteousness — to correct thinking and to 
right feeling. 

I am disposed to suggest that the world 
will be more ready than ever before to hear 
just such a message. The nightmare of 
these years is already upon large areas in 
Europe. In the United States, when the 
death roll begins to fill the columns of our 
papers and families everywhere recognize 
the names of loved ones, we shall share the 
feeling of the desolate in other lands. In 
that hour of retrospect the world, in a 
thoughtful mood amid its sadness, will wel- 
come the gospel of hope built on the firm 
foundation of righteousness and furnishing 

18 



THE CHURCH AFTER THE WAR 

a program of conduct that transforms a 
world of fiendishness into a world of friend- 
liness. 

To be ready with such a message it is im- 
portant that here and now the church catch 
the inspiration of the heavenly message. 
We have heard all too much from the easy- 
going and pleasure-loving church — often 
grown indifferent to the central truths of the 
gospel through worldly prosperity. It has 
been all too easy to assume ease and pros- 
perity as conclusive evidence of acceptable 
character before God. We have come upon 
a time of serious thoughtfulness when some 
among us are making shipwreck of faith be- 
cause they cannot interpret the current 
events in the light of the truth. Their per- 
spective has been distorted and the supreme 
opportunity of the Christian church will be 
as it now is — to set the world right in its 
head and heart. 

To view this problem from a different 
angle, let me suggest that the post-bellum 
church will magnify the importance of the 
moral government of God in the world. 
A generation ago we heard rather more of 

19 



THE CHURCH AFTER THE WAR 

the doctrine of moral government than we 
now do. Men felt that under 

H M ^1 *^^^ conception they were indi- 
Goven^^ent vidually responsible to God for 
their conduct, and that in large 
groups — families and nations — there was a 
certain solidarity that brought a whole peo- 
ple to the bar of judgment. From the day 
when the world learned the word "Jehovah" 
— the revelation of the everliving God — un- 
til the day of Jesus, the express image of his 
person, and for twenty Christian centuries 
since, the spiritually enlightened have seen 
the binding force of moral obligation. From 
this point of view moral integrity is not a 
matter of option but of obligation. Men are 
free, but under moral obligation to be men 
and not mere fools. 

In an easygoing, prosperous world, 
clothed in purple and fine linen, it is easy to 
substitute ease and luxury for righteousness 
and integrity. I am not making a plea for 
poverty or hardness as of necessity a virtue. 
I am trying to suggest that too many of us 
have lost our sense of obligation. We take 
our religion as one of the options of life in- 

20 



THE CHURCH AFTER THE WAR 

stead of one of the obligations of life. In 
the large sense, then, this nation and all 
other nations must face the question of 
moral obligation. We shall need to recog- 
nize the binding force of moral law and the 
logical consequence that in a universe where 
moral law is supreme its mandates cannot be 
ignored or disregarded but at our everlast- 
ing peril. To that high privilege the church 
will come as the world's spiritual guide with 
a new zeal. 

To be more specific, let me add that the 

church will have a new opportunity to put 

some stress upon the fact that 

Covenants ^^^ ^^^ ^^ ^ covenant-keeping 
God, that his word is both sure 
and steadfast, and that in the last analysis 
the character of God is the binding force of 
all his messages to the world. We often 
revert to the fact that this is an age in which 
the pulpit proclaims the love of God to the 
exclusion of what men conceive to be the 
less welcome or less truthful message. 

Surely no man ever preached the love of 
God with too great fervor or too great an 
emphasis. Far be it from any of us to lessen 

21 



THE CHURCH AFTER THE WAR 

that emphasis. The beauty here is that this 
love, hke the Hght, is the perfect blending of 
all his excellencies, most of which we cannot 
see and should fail to see if we undertook to 
analyze his love. We rejoice in the love of 
God and its wide proclamation. 

Nevertheless, a little thought will suggest 
that love when expressed in character al- 
ways makes its word good. A godly world 
will be a covenant-keeping world, and the 
character of the world will be its greatest 
asset. No nation can afford to trifle with 
character. 

From the standpoint of society the sacred- 
ness of a contract is the binding force of our 
civihzation. In a primitive world contracts 
were few and not far-reaching in effect. In 
the world of to-day millions of contracts are 
made every hour. These often affect the 
future and will be fulfilled when those who 
made them are in their graves. Many 
of our public policies and public enterprises, 
as well as our personal contracts, are based 
upon the good faith of the world, upon hu- 
man integrity, and carry their consequences 
to the unborn generation. Because of this 

22 



THE CHURCH AFTER THE WAR 

there can be no security, no abiding assur- 
ance and happiness in a world where the 
sacredness of contracts is not adequately 
recognized. I presume this is why in that 
terrible arraignment of those who hold the 
truth in unrighteousness as we find it in the 
first chapter of Romans, the covenant- 
breakers are especially named among the 
vilest of God's creatures. 

In a way this great war has that issue 
clearly before the world. It is essentially 
righteousness and truth at war with the 
wickedness of duplicity and false dealing. 
In times of peace we have been wont to 
think of these things as old-fashioned morals 
and virtues. They must now come to the 
front as the newest demand. I shall speak 
of it here because we have often heard it said 
that the church was losing its hold upon 
men and upon the affairs of the world ; that 
its influence was declining until it had be- 
come almost a negligible quantity. 

Out of this war the church will, I hope, 
bring the world to see that these great moral 
issues are always great issues. Truth is 
never unimportant. Error may never be 

23 



THE CHURCH AFTER THE WAR 

treated with hospitality. The reassuring 
feature of the present situation is that the 
world is passing through a vital religious ex- 
perience. No longer do we hear the cry that 
Christianity has failed and the church col- 
lapsed. Men are now giving expression to 
their profound sentiments, and these all in- 
dicate a sense of relation to God and de- 
pendence upon him that encourages the 
heart if the church can now come forward 
with her message in an adequate manner. 
Rejoice as we may in the genuineness and 
hopefulness of the religious experience of 
Mr. Britling when he "sees it through," we 
are not blind to the fact that the boys in the 
trenches are not praying to a limited, finite 
God, but to the God of our fathers — the in- 
finite, eternal, and all-wise God — their gra- 
cious, loving heavenly Father. 

Passing now to other considerations that 
suggest the opportunity of the church after 
the war, let me direct attention 
and *^ ^^^ significance of the present 

Cooperation gigantic scale of human coopera- 
tion as seen in the war. Viewed 
as a whole and forgetting for the moment 

24 



THE CHURCH AFTER THE WAR 

the issues of the war, the present voluntary 
cooperation on the part of governments is 
the most stupendous work ever undertaken. 
The spirit in which this is done is truly a 
marvel. If one can but appreciate the atti- 
tudes of men who are making sacrifice, large 
or small, he will find that this spirit of com- 
mon service has permeated all industry, all 
philanthropy, all social service, all business, 
and even has caught our amusements. Now 
this is not without tremendous significance. 
It is demonstrating to the world how much 
more may be accomplished, how much more 
endured, and how much wider our experi- 
ences than in a method of isolated workers. 
The enormous development of industry, the 
development of the inventive genius of men, 
the power of organization, the intimate ac- 
quaintance with the better side of men and 
of their virtues under the stimulus of co- 
operative effort, are all bringing to the 
world a new conception of what can be done 
if men will only embrace the opportunity. 
This experience will never be forgotten ; and 
when the war shall have ended, this tremen- 
dous energy and efficiency will not lapse 

25 



THE CHURCH AFTER THE WAR 

back into sloth and indifference. The joy of 
achievement will be fresh in the minds of 
men. They will be restless for other achieve- 
ments in the arts of peace. Men who have 
been engaged in large international service 
will eagerly grasp at an opportunity for a 
world service. Here will be a supreme op- 
portunity for the church, the herald of the 
Kingdom, to show men the largeness of the 
great issues in the spiritual conquest of the 
world, to interpret Christianity in world 
terms. Our motto — "The World for 
Christ" — will be radiant with significance 
and will make its appeal to men who have 
seen the abomination of desolation and the 
havoc wrought under the influence of a 
pagan conception of the world. 

Out of this war experience in cooperative 
effort there are several features to which I 
may refer. 

First of all, the increase of knowledge. 
The world is becoming acquainted with it- 
self geographically as never before. We are 
learning about the world conditions socially 
and industrially as never before. The real 
spirit of governments has been manifest in 

26 



THE CHURCH AFTER THE WAR 

a marked degree. The realm of history has 
been traversed anew and the meaning of the 
past revised in the hght of this great war. 
Science has opened up new fields. Every 
important laboratory in the country has 
been active and enough is now known to 
warrant the statement that the scientific 
progress of the past year has never been 
equaled in the history of the world. Espe- 
cially is this true in the field of applied 
science. 

Moreover, one cannot fail to observe the 
international character of our thinking. 
Our foreign-mission enterprises had pre- 
pared the way for this experience. In spite 
of the meager sums spent on foreign mis- 
sions, and the few men employed, there is 
no field of Christian activity where money 
and men have been so effective in widening 
the vision and the sympathy of the world as 
in this phase of Christian enterprise. 

Now that the eyes of all the world have 
been turned upon the war-stricken area, it is 
a happy experience to see that the mission- 
ary post, the missionary school, and the 
Christian hospital are the centers of light 

27 



THE CHURCH AFTER THE WAR 

and of advanced liberal thinking upon many 
of the world's greatest issues. 

The reorganization of industry during 
this war has been little short of an indus- 
trial revolution. Men of large business in- 
terests have come to a new estimate of their 
place and of their activities in the world. 
All this points to a new world, a readjusted 
world. We shall never return to the old 
order. That has passed once and forever. 
We are now confronted with the order to go 
forward and win this new world for Christ 
as the only possible alternative worthy of 
us. There is a deep significance in the reply 
of President Wilson to the peace proposals 
from the Vatican, especially in the sug- 
gested changes in economics and all the 
problems of trade and commerce arising out 
of international activities. His reply is a 
clarion call for the world to become a vast 
neighborhood in which friends and neigh- 
bors may live in peace and safety because the 
essential principles of the kingdom of 
heaven shall come out of this war with in- 
ternational approval and sanction. 

For our purpose this morning I suggest 
28 



THE CHURCH AFTER THE WAR 

two things : First, this post-bellum condition 
Church ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^ church unity such 

Unity ^s ^he world and the church have 

not yet experienced. The seven- 
teenth chapter of John (and a few other 
chapters) is now due for a new reading. 
The final prayers of our Lord are due for a 
new study by the church. If the church 
should fail in the new field of opportunity 
by not developing a more profound unity 
than heretofore or by permitting its energies 
to be spent in useless controversy, unhappy 
would be the day. The church is the di- 
vinely appointed — and shall I say anointed? 
— agency of God to proclaim the Kingdom. 
In these great overturnings shall we not see 
to it that He shall come whose right it is to 
reign, even Emmanuel? 

From the standpoint of the church we are 
quite prepared for this new movement of 
unified Christianity. Protestantism has had 
her days of controversy, happily past, and 
we have come to know through a valid 
Christian experience the difference between 
the essential and the nonessential. The his- 
torical significance of our great denomina- 

29 



THE CHURCH AFTER THE WAR 

tional movements may well be recognized 
and given their proper place, but just now 
the world and the church are confronted 
with new phases of the old issues. We are 
passing into a new order as the world has 
done before, but never on so large a scale or 
where the issues were brought to so sharp a 
focus. In my humble opinion the world is 
now in the presence of the greatest epoch 
since the birth of Christ. 

John of Runnymede signing the Magna 
Charta was a thrilling moment. The 
French Revolution stirred all Europe. The 
Civil War in the United States lifted this 
country to a new level. All these, however, 
were local issues in large degree. They in- 
volved directly a relatively small population, 
although in their later effects each had influ- 
enced the whole world. To-day a thousand 
millions of people, involving all the principal 
governments and all the most fruitful lands 
of the world, all the chief centers of Chris- 
tian activity and influence, are engaged in a 
contest unparalleled and unprecedented in 
its magnitude, its finances, its forces of men, 
its resources of every kind and character. In 

30 



THE CHURCH AFTER THE WAR 

this great contest the most fundamental 
issues of life and civilization are involved. 
What shall we say of the opportunity of the 
church and what shall men not say if we 
should fail in this critical hour? No parley- 
ing or ecclesiastical fencing or harking back 
to the contests of the Dark Ages or the 
Middle Ages will win and redeem the world 
of to-morrow to Christ and crown him Lord 
of all. When the world by cooperative 
methods shall have won the greatest triumph 
of history in the name of righteousness, 
truth and humanity, and when the death 
knell shall have been sounded to militarism, 
might and physical force as the basis of gov- 
ernments, then will come the hour of su- 
preme opportunity to the church. In that 
hour she will face the great issue of working 
together in a spirit of cooperative unity 
equal to the demands of the world, or men 
will turn from her as unworthy and unequal 
to the task. 

Second, this is not an hour of doubt. In 
this critical hour I may properly appeal to a 
great church, founded in large measure upon 
the vitality and validity of Christian expe- 

31 



THE CHURCH AFTER THE WAR 

rience, to stand forth in the Hght and history 
An Hour ^^ *^^^ experience and say with 
for Faith Paul, "I know whom I have be- 
heved." The Methodist Church 
can never be true to her historic experience 
and stand in doubt and uncertainty as to 
the abihty of the Captain of our salvation 
to lead the innumerable hosts of the unified 
church on to the spiritual conquest of the 
world and the spread of the Kingdom until 
it shall cover the whole earth as the waters 
cover the great deep. 

Out of the darkness of these days of the 
most dreadful and inhuman war ever waged 
among men, and in the presence of unspeak- 
able atrocities, the voice of humanity is call- 
ing from the depths. Here as never before 
the voice of the people is the voice of God. 
To that call the church as with one voice and 
with one mind should respond to the great 
commission when our Lord said, "All 
authority hath been given unto me in heaven 
and on earth. Go ye therefore, and make 
disciples of all the nations, . . . and lo, 
I am with you always, even unto the end of 
the world." 

32 Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process- 

Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: 3£p 2UU2 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

111 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
f724^ 779-2111 



LIBRPRY OF CONGRESS 



021 547 677 7 

km'' :' 



■^ 



